It felt like Ranger was stuck using her speed. She wanted to grab some of the furniture being thrown at her and Rex, but when she grabbed a chair to throw it never came. So instead Ranger had to keep moving. Duck, dodging, and diving to avoid an ottoman invasion followed by a coffee table.

Rex used his old fire vine trick on Ebb and locked him in place.

The screams of pain were horrific and fantastic. Horrific in sound but fantastic to hear. The man was in pain, extreme pain and his gravity attacks were losing focus. The changes felt less fluid and unnerving and more snappy and unfocused. Ebb didn't have the attention to throw furniture and keep Rex and Ranger off balance.

Ranger used that to her advantage. She hauled seven kinds of ass the get behind Ebb, letting Rex take the focus for a moment, before turning and charging Ebb. She had to jump from the ceiling to the floor mid charge, but when she drop kicked him in the back she was traveling in the realm of 85 miles per hour.

The kick hurt. Ranger could tell that only the altered and enhanced structure of her leg muscles kept the bones from snapping. Ranger impacted and then pushed off. She could feel and hear ribs breaking in the man’s chest as he bent forward and Ranger sprung off into the air toward a ceiling that was the ground to her before rolling over mid flight and crashing into the actual ground.

”I think I got ‘em.” Ranger said in a pained tone before she lifted her face off the floor and blew hair out of her eyes.

The screams of a man being burnt would haunt Rex's soul for a long time. He just knew it. The sickening smell of burning human flesh that filled his nostrils nearly drove him to retch but he managed to hold back. Fortunately, Ebb's wetsuit protected him from the worst of the burns, but Rex knew they were sure to be torturous regardless.

It was one more sin to add to the confessional.

Rex couldn't dwell for long on the ethics, because the weights of the room suddenly focused on him. Dozens of books began falling at him at terminal velocities and even as he weathered those, a corresponding bookshelf fell his way. He managed to avoid most of it was still got clipped on his side.

Then an awful crunch made its way to Rex's ears and gravity normalized. With a grunt of surprise, Rex fell to the floor and his the fallen bookcase hard before rolling down it. "Blessed Maria," he cried as a bit of wind got knocked out of him. As he fought off vertigo and another attempt to puke, Rex caught sight of Ebb who was now dangling listlessly from the still burning bush.

Rex cut off the spell and the fire construct vanished, letting Ebb strike the floor. Rex rushed over as fast as he could, ignored the aches and spasms in his own body as he knelt by Ebb.

"And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus," Rex said as he began pouring healing energy into the man. Immediately, burns began scabbing over and shrinking but not much was happening around the chest. "Dear God, save him!" Rex pleaded.

In the time it took Ranger to push herself up into a sitting position and begin palpating them, Rex had moved to Ebb. Ranger’s legs, especially her feet and ankles, hurt from the kick. As far as she could tell nothing was broken, but the bones and connective tissue were not happy.

While checking herself for injuries Ranger heard Rex speaking over Ebb. Ranger looked up and saw the man working power over Ebb. It was clear in that moment that Rex and Ranger took different approaches.

Ranger solved problems by putting people in the ground. Rex saved people by keeping them out of the ground. Both resulted in people being saved, but one likely was building an emotional and psychological debt that could one day come due.

After standing, Ranger’s first steps were limped, but after that she was moving normally. It seemed Rex was pleading with the almighty to help. Ranger looked the man over and found a pen, ”If y’ can direct the healin’, work on the broken ribs.” Ranger knelt next to Ebb and produced her tomahawk. She cut off the ends of the pen. ”He has a deflated lung.” Ranger used the tomahawk to cut clothing out of the way and then make a small cut between the ribs. From there Ranger stabbed in the pen and watched the chest on that side rise as the lung reinflated.

Trauma medicine was about the only kind of medicine Ranger really understood. Ranger hoped he had helped Rex. Help his conscious and also got him back in the fight sooner. The job wasn’t done yet.

”Get him as stable as y’ can but we’ve got t’ move. We’re still in hostile territory.” Ranger said as she checked over her shotgun.

Energy from another realm continued to course through Rex and into Ebb's body, empowering the downed man's cells to start fighting back against the wounds and regenerating. "Oh Blessed Maria," Rex breathed as his own strength started to enter the healing flow.

Shame flushed Rex's face. "I cannot choose the healing," he said as he kept energy surging through his hands. "All I can do is give him strength. The rest is in the Lord's hands."

Rex made room and noted the swiftness and ease with which Hunter worked. He'd clearly done this before. Ebb gasped violently as his lung began reinflating and repairing, but there was a grim horror to it, as flesh began sealing around the pen. "I've got it from here," Rex said. "Go keep a lookout." More power rushed into Ebb and Rex uttered another prayer, "Father, I need your help. I need to know this man's pulse."

Numbers appeared in Rex's head, as if uttered by a still, small voice, and he breathed a quiet thanks. A minute later, he repeated the prayer and the numbers got a little better.

"Hallelujah," Rex said as he finally took his hands off the villain, ending the spell. "He's stable and--oh," Rex broke off as the room momentarily spun and he swayed to the side. He felt tired. Very tired. As if he'd just completed a strenuous workout in just a couple of minutes. A hand shot out to the ground to keep his balance and then Rex slowly pulled himself to his feet. He checked his belt and his glove before giving Hunter a weary nod.

"Let's go."

Rex was able to heal, but was unable to direct it. That was a useful tidbit for Ranger to stow away. Even with it not being directed, the healing did a good job of keeping the man alive. Ranger being dismissed as the wound began healing around the improvised tube.

”On it.” Ranger said as he stowed his tomahawk and stepped back from Ebb’s body. Clearly Rex would not be leaving Ebb until he was stable and they had no idea what was awaiting them still in the house. Other than a magical Egyptian woman and someone manipulating a whole lot of water.

Ranger adjusted the sling on her shotgun to tuck it in tight against her torso. It took a bit of work as the device was meant for a larger frame. The work was worth it when she was able to move freely without the weapon swinging around in front of her, and it was only one pulled strap away from it being freed to swing up to her shoulder.

There were stairs that led up to the second level, Ranger climbed the first few and watched and listened. From above the ripples of light through water could be seen on walls. The light was an eerie glow, like some kind of eldritch source lay beyond the water. The sound of a large body of water moving quietly drifted down with the light.

Before advancing further, Ranger looked back to Rex, the firefighter was now using a hand to help balance. Healing must be a lot of work for him. Rex Nodded at Ranger after he stood and checked his kit.

”Hang bak if y’ need t’ catch y’r breath.” Ranger said as she took a few steps up the stairs, ”Somethin’ tells me the real fun’s up there.”

Ranger climbed the stairs, crouching down and taking a peak over the top of the last stair before she hit the landing. A decently open space with water lining the walls, and the ceiling, and the floor. It was a cave of water that collapsed and surged at the stairs the moment Ranger’s eye’s peeked the stairs. Ranger took hold of the railing and called down the Rex, ”Tidal wave!” just before the wall of water rushed past her.

Rex had just stepped onto the stairs. He was keeping his distance behind Hunter and letting the combat-experienced man take point. The firefighter had simply nodded when it was suggested he hang back. He was already feeling winded - the power he'd channeled had taken a lot out of him. The equivalent energy the body would need over a period of months to heal such injuries naturally had coursed through Rex in less than a few minutes. It still wasn't perfect. It wasn't good enough. Unfortunately, Rex did not have the luxury of completely healing the man, even if it was within his power.

The battle was not over.

Hunter yelled about a tidal wave and Rex barely had a chance to process the words. He just fell as the torrent rushed down the steps and swept his feet out from under him. He tried to break his fall with his hands but the water was fast and strong and it twisted him enough that he struck the steps with his head before the water yanked him back out into the parlor at large. The water kept coming though.

Rex grabbed onto the wrecked ottoman as the water began rapidly covering the floor but the broken furniture didn't arrest his momentum. He smashed into the unconscious form of Ebb and had a single moment to pick his head up, when the windows in the room suddenly shattered and the water that had surrounded the house in a bubble began flooding the first floor.

On the second floor, there was a shriek of anger and rage and a woman in a wetsuit appeared at the end of a hallway, rapidly getting closer to the stairs. She was surfing on a small wave of water, swiftly dodging obstacles and roaring at Hunter. More and more water from the second floor converged at the stairs.

The water flowed over and around Ranger as she clung to the railing. Ranger expected it to hit and then subside, to only be the water that had been held in the upstairs. She was wrong. Ranger looked up through the water to see something closing on her, riding the water that seemed to just flow endlessly.

Not wanting to give whomever or whatever was approaching the chance to press their advantage, Ranger let go of the railing and after a moment of being driven back by the water, she was swimming. Her arms and legs moved with incredible speed. No single stoke of her arms or kick or her legs moved her much against the rush of water, but the aggregate of moving her limbs faster than any Olympic swimmer had ever dreamed, propelled her forward and laterally.

It was by inches than Ranger avoided the object moving through the water. She powered on and forced herself up onto the landing of the second level before the water seemed to rise below her, carrying her up into the middle of the space of the room. Ranger spun to see the thing approaching again. Now that the water almost seemed calmer, holding her there, she could see it was a woman in a wetsuit. The woman had hit the stairs, missed Ranger and spun around.

As the woman approached, Ranger could feel the burning beginning in her chest. Her power was aiding in keeping oxygen flowing, but she would need a breath to capitalize on it. The woman approached, grinning, as Ranger seemed trapped, drowning. Once she was within a yard, Ranger whipped up the shotgun as fast as she could with the resistance and fired.

The gun erupted, bubbles of cavitation forming in the water where gas escaped, and the buckshot was propelled out into the water. Immediately it began to spread and decelerate. Ranger had to wait for the woman to close within five feet to allow the shot to accomplish anything.

Ranger did not account for the woman being able to move herself with the water. Shifting to the side, avoiding the buckshot that could have given her some new blowholes.

Water was now coming from everywhere. It was filling in from the windows and the walls, and now pouring down the stairs like a waterfall. Rex pushed himself to his feet once again. The water was already past his ankles. He didn't spare any thoughts to wonder how it could happen to quickly, only focusing on that it was happening, and very quickly.

As a firefighter, his life revolved around the dangers of fire and ways to suppress it. Naturally, water was used a lot. As a result, he was acutely aware of how damaging water could be. The destruction of the windows was just the beginning. The amount of water that had surrounded the house...well, he didn't think all of that water was going to stay outside the house. Not with the gravity-controller lying unconscious in the water.

With a grunt, Rex reached down and hauled Ebb up until he could get him into a fireman's carry. "Enough!" he shouted over the sound of many waters splashing and pouring. "You'll bring this whole house down on us!"

His voice caught the woman's attention and Flo shouted, "What did you do to my brother?!"

Then a pillar of water smashed into Rex, blasting him out from underneath Ebb even as two more pillars emerged, one aimed at blasting Hunter and the second to cradle Ebb.

Flo had evaded buckshot and moved away. Ranger used the moment to make a break for the only gap of air she saw. A yard of sweet, sweet oxygen between Flo and Ranger. She moved her arms and legs with perfect form, each movement applying the optimal amount of delta-v until Ranger broke through the water and was launching at Flo like an American alligator launching like a rocket from below the water.

Ranger had a moment to take a deep breath before a pillar of water slammed into Ranger. The water began swirling and robbed all of Ranger’s forward momentum and made it hard for her to gain control.

The woman turned back to Ranger, clearly surprised by her making it out of the water the first time. She moved a hand and the water swirled faster. The faster it spun, the more Ranger could feel her ability swim against or tangential to the rotation decrease.

After several seconds of this Range felt her arm shoot out and her hand grasp something. She was being spun so fast it was like she was in a G-forces simulator that was spinning up. She looked what she had grabbed. A painting, in a heavy wooden frame. Ranger then had a moment to process that it was lined up to impact Flo.

Rex was knocked head over teakettle into the remains of a now-sodden couch. It buffered him from the impact into the wall and he bounced off the cushions and fell back into the water. The entire first floor was covered in water and debris, already rising to waist level. It was as if all the water from the grounds was being yanked into the room.

He got back to his feet again for the third time in fewer than that amount of minutes. Words began forming on his tongue, but he held off. He was banged up and bruised, but he wasn't broken. No sense wasting any power on healing himself.

He saw Ebb floating on top of a disk of water and Rex relaxed a millimeter. The man wasn't going to drown. This was good though. If Flo was protecting Ebb, that was one more thing for her to concentrate on and one less thing for Rex to deal with, at least until this was all over.

"Your brother is stable," Rex roared at the woman even as he debated his options. Another burning bush would be useless, as would a pillar of fire. He needed range. "But this house isn't! You need to--!"

In mid command, even as Flo was whirling to aim another water pillar at Rex, a heavily framed portrait smashed into the side of Flo's face and she was knocked in a 180 degree spin and collapsed into the water. Unnatural eddies, whirlpools, and the cradle of water that protected Ebb vanished as her concentration shattered.

The painting with its heavy frame made contact with Flo and broke. Ranger kept spinning with two thirds of the frame in tact in her hands, and the rest was deflected off the dome piece of Flo, taking a torn piece of painted canvas with it.

Ranger kept spinning in water that was then only under the influence of gravity and inertia. She fell to the ground and rolled a little. Her eyes tracking side to side as she tried to push herself up through the dizziness from the spinning. ”I think I got her.” Ranger coughed before just falling over sideways from her hands and knees. Instead of trying to get up immediately, Ranger rolled onto her back and called, ”I may’ve blunt force Van Goghed her head.” Good thing people had a spare ear on the other side.

After a few deep breaths Ranger sat up and looked at Flo. She was still breathing, a good sign after a head wound. Ranger crawled a little closer and looked at her head. The damage was not good, but other than a nasty scar, she should be okay.

That just left the scarb woman.

The water levels were falling, but not rapidly. The house was groaning and creaking and leaks were forming in the ceiling overhead. Water was already starting to spill through the floor since it not longer had mutants controlling gravity or the water itself to keep it under control. The damage was already done.

The blood on Flo's head was not good, but Rex could see her still trying to move. That would have to do.

His training and instincts warred with his reasoning. He wanted to assess the woman and perform triage. He wanted her and her brother out of there as the area was a hazardous environment that was well on its way toward collapsing. His rational brain fought back though. They were stable and not in immediate danger of dying. that might not be true if the sorceress was left to her own devices. Back at the museum, it had only taken her minutes to start summoning an army of jackal-headed warriors.

Rex just nodded at Hunter. "Then let's get a move on," he said before sloshing toward the stairs. He began reciting as he did so and by the time he reached the stairs, the sword of white light shimmered forth into his left hand. Small tiny lettering on the leather glove on his right hand began glowing as he started pouring focus and energy into it. HE started up the water-logged and creaking steps.

After a moment, Ranger’s head was no longer spinning and she was able to stand and keep her balance. She was not amused to now know what laundry felt like. At the same time Ranger could see Rex giving a once over on Flo. To Ranger she was a hostile actor and her death would be an unfortunate resolution were the head injury to prove fatal. Ranger knew that her view on life and death in a combat situation was callous and borderline inhuman but she couldn’t worry about those who had tried to kill her when there was still a job to do.

Ranger knew that leaving Flo on the ground, bleeding from a head wound must be tearing him up. Ranger viewed Rex as the better man for it. It was easy to move mountains to help those you cared about as Ranger would. It took a real hero to care for those who stood against you.

Rex said it was time to get a move on and Ranger nodded back. Ranger took up position behind Rex as Rex brought forth a sword of light. It was game time. Ranger loosed the sling on her shotgun and flexed her fingers on the stock. They didn’t know what the sorceress would bear, but in their last encounter there had been scarabs and jackals. Double-ought buckshot seemed to work rather well before. Hopefully it would work again.

”Y’ get t’ her. I’ll clear the road.” Ranger said following Rex up the stairs, touching her support hand to Rex’s arm to indicate which side she was on and guide him off center on the stairs.. She walked hard to one side so she had a clear shot past Rex at whatever the sorceress sent.

Rex's jaw was set and if anyone saw firelight flickering in his eyes, they wouldn't necessarily be hallucinating. He took the steps carefully, in case of water damage and to conserve energy. He didn't want to rush into anything either - another wall of water or something similar could take him entirely out of action.

He allowed himself to be guided to the side of the stairs and he could hear Hunter moving on the other side. Good. Rex wouldn't be getting knocked into him if he fell.

The firefighter walked in silence and once they made it to the second floor, everything grew better illuminated. Sure, Rex's sword lighting up the place, but sunlight now streamed in through the windows. It seemed the water barrier had vanished. Good. Rex had had enough of water today.

Approaching the end of the hall, Rex followed the sounds of scraping and rustling. It sounded like objects were being moved around. He turned a corner and stopped. Ahead, through an open door, Rex could see part of a room that looked like a whirlwind had gone through it. Even as he looked, he saw a box collide against a wall and some kind of curse shouted. There were heavy scraping sounds, like stone upon wood but at regular intervals. It sounded like things made of stone were walking around.

Rex turned a shot a glance at Hunter. He jerked his head toward the door and arched an eyebrow. Well? What's the play here?

The combination of morning sun and the the sword Rex carried illuminated the second floor as the pair returned to it. Water still ran in small thin streams and dripped here and there, but it was uncontrolled and waning. Rex led the way through the space and into a hall that ended with an open door past a corner.

As Rex turned to face Ranger, there were distinct sounds of stone things moving across and clawing into wood. A sure sign that the scarab summoner was in the room. Ranger met Rex’s eyes and questioning eyebrow with a small shrug and a wave small shake of the shotgun. Have gun will travel.

Ranger then used her support hand to point to herself and then gestured with a knife hand to the door and cocked it to the side, indicating she would go in and peel off to one side. Then she pointed at Rex and held up a hand to halt followed by two fingers then indicated to move in and go the opposite direction.

Then to really drive the point home, Ranger held up bunny ears behind her head and smiled. She was the rabbit.

Rex had the best shot of stopping the summoner from what Ranger had seen. Ranger could manage the summoned things for a time. Hopefully draw as many of the constructed beings toward her as possible before Rex entered. Provide the clearest shot for the man,

From there Ranger gave a thumbs up and then a three count. On zero she tossed a flash grenade before charging in. The bright light and concussive noise punctuating her entry into the room. She peeled to one side and let the shotgun bark. Her focus was clearing the threats on the opposite side. Give Rex a clear shot into the room.